


Let Me Take Care Of You

by itsallaboutflowermetaphors



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Canonical Character Death, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Quidditch, Snapshots, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Weasley family feels, because i developed a thing for domhnall gleeson, from their first year until after Hogwarts, looking after each other, now with 200 percent more Bill and Charlie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-02
Updated: 2016-06-02
Packaged: 2018-07-11 19:36:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7067281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsallaboutflowermetaphors/pseuds/itsallaboutflowermetaphors
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy is only eleven but he wants to become prefect, then Head Boy and then Minister of Magic, it’s a plan with many steps. Oliver is quite impressed by Percy’s plan.<br/>Oliver wants to play Quidditch, he hates not being allowed to own a broom. Oliver Wood dreams of playing for the Gryffindor team, winning the Quidditch Cup and being a professional.</p><p>(majorly edited in July 2018, edits include more than 1.1k new words)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let Me Take Care Of You

Their friendship starts in the train to Hogwarts when Oliver asks to sit in Percy’s compartment. Percy wanted to read a book but isn't even bothered when Oliver starts to ramble about Quidditch.  
Percy Weasley is a gangly 11-year-old with short curly ginger hair and horn-rimmed glasses too big for his face, perched high on his nose. Oliver Wood is a bit shorter than Percy, closer to average height and has light brown hair.  
They get sorted into Gryffindor and Oliver meets Percy’s older brothers Bill and Charlie. He learns that the ginger has a lot of siblings and that he is very enthusiastic about learning as much as possible. Percy is only eleven but he wants to become prefect, then Head Boy and then Minister of Magic, it’s a plan with many steps. Oliver is quite impressed by Percy’s plan.  
Oliver wants to play Quidditch, he hates not being allowed to own a broom. Oliver Wood dreams of playing for the Gryffindor team, winning the Quidditch Cup and being a professional.  
Percy starts telling Oliver that he has to study harder within their first week.  
They sit in their dorm talking about their families and homes. Both of the eleven-year-olds miss them terribly.  
Oliver loves watching the Quidditch games and Percy is accompanying him, though his nose is usually buried in a book. Oliver is able to appreciate the gesture still.  
Some mornings, when the room is still dark, the curtains in front of the belfry windows not yet pushed open, Percy reaches for his glasses on his bedside table, but instead of being able to grab them he accidentally pushes them off the edge. The first time it happens, he feels around in the vicinity of the table, squinting at the floor, hoping to see more for almost five minutes before asking Oliver to help him find them. And Oliver comes out of their washroom, crouches down next to Percy, scans the area around the table, then leans down to look under the bed and extends his arm. He comes back up with a pair of glasses in his hand and presents them to Percy.  
“Thank you,” the ginger says, sliding them on his face “I never would have found them there”  
When his vision sharpens Oliver is smiling at him.  
The next time it happens Percy just asks Oliver if the first splotchy blob he believes to be his glasses turns out not to be them. 

Their second year is Bill’s last year, also. Percy misses him already,thinks he shouldn’t because he’s 12 and his brother isn’t leaving until June when the third term ends. The young Gryffindor cries anyways and when Oliver finds him, curled up on his four-poster, he tells him that it is okay. Percy thinks it over and decides that; yes, it is.  
Two weeks later Oliver is ecstatic when he gets to play as Keeper after the Quidditch team trial. Oliver has accomplished his first goal.  
He gets knocked off his broom by a bludger within the first two minutes of his very first game. It’s quite anticlimactic.  
Percy visits him in the infirmary, sits by his bed every day for a week until Oliver wakes up again.  
Despite being knocked out for a week and the giant bump on his head Oliver is as enthusiastic about playing Quidditch as before the accident.  
When the next game comes around Percy goes again, he brings another book but it rests in his lap as he watches the spectacle in front of his eyes. 

With the start of their third year Fred and George Weasley start to attend Hogwarts. Percy hopes the teachers don’t think less of him because of the twins’ tomfoolery.  
They don’t, Percy knows, but it helps when his friend tells him, too.  
A few weeks later everything is back to normal, Percy is sitting on his bed reading a book on ancient runes he lent from the library—he has six new electives to study for—when Oliver marches into their dorm wearing a mud-drenched Quidditch uniform, dripping sludge on the dark wooden floor and rolls his eyes at his mate. He stopped complaining out loud shortly after Oliver made it on the team. 

 

Charlie Weasley decides not to be Captain of the Quidditch team during his final year, rather focussing on his N.E.W.T.s and fourth-year Oliver gets to be Captain.Oliver has reached his next goal. Percy doesn’t say it out loud but he’s proud of his dorm mate. Instead, he tries to help Oliver with Quidditch tactics, simulating players by levitating pairs of socks.  
On game days, Percy notices, that Oliver encourages his teammates to eat but doesn’t himself. He makes it his mission to sit with the team and push food in front of the Quidditch Captain until he eats. 

It’s Oliver who reassures Percy at the start of their fifth year that taking his position as a prefect seriously isn’t a bad thing and that Fred and George don’t intend to do harm. Oliver tells him that he should be proud, he achieved what he always wanted. He’s reached his first goal. Percy smiles a tight-lipped smile at that, it’s true but there’s so much more he needs to accomplish.  
Percy hides in the library almost immediately, it’s the year they are going to take their O.W.L.s and Percy intends to achieve them in all twelve of his subjects. Percy goes as soon as classes are over and doesn’t leave until 8pm when the library closes. Then he studies in the quiet of the dorm.  
Upon noticing that Percy is obviously skipping meals, especially on the weekend, Oliver smuggles food into the library. Water too, because Percy forgets to take enough with him.  
The prefect is hiding at a little rectangular table in a quiet corner of the library, far away from other students, buried in pergaments and books stacked high around him. Oliver taps his friend’s shoulder and pulls a tightly knotted cloth napkin from his bag, when Percy opens it carefully he’s presented with a few pumpkin pastries and an apple.  
“Thank you,” he says.  
Sometimes, when Percy studies in the dorm, Oliver places a hot chocolate next to him, a silent reminder to maybe go to bed soon.  
In the end, Percy achieves all 12 O.W.L.s.

 

During the summer of ‘92 Percy’s got a girlfriend. Has been with her since sometime during his 5th year actually. Still, he’s nervous, afraid to write the wrong stuff. Oliver’s the one helping his friend when he’s freaking out about what he should write Penelope. He ends up writing more letters to him than to her. Maybe that should have told him something. They break up before Hallowe’en. 

When Quidditch gets cancelled during their sixth year because of the attacks on muggleborns, Oliver kind of understands but is also very worried he’s never going to be able to win the Quidditch Cup, never gets the chance to be a professional. This time it is Percy who’s reassuring his dorm mate. Telling him that he’ll still be able to win the cup in their final year.

Before their seventh year starts Percy receives a letter from McGonagall, she chose him as headboy, he cries out of joy, he also writes an owl to Oliver to tell him. Percy has accomplished his next goal.  
Oliver wins the cup, too, another goal achieved. He’s grinning from ear to ear while hugging his team mates. Students are flooding the pitch, Percy is among them, ready to congratulate his friend after watching the match intently, his eyes never leaving Oliver. It’s because Oliver was hit in the stomach by two Bludgers earlier, Percy tries to tell himself. He needs to make sure his friend is okay. When he has almost reached the Gryffindor Captain, Oliver spots him and draws him in for a hug. He is sweaty and his hair mussed by the wind. His breath warm against Percy’s ear, his arms heavy around Percy’s shoulders. Percy’s arms close around Oliver’s middle on instinct.  
“C’mon Head Boy,” he says, “tell me you were right.”  
Percy shakes his head, “This isn’t about me. You won because you and your team trained so hard”  
Then he’s shifting his hands to rest on Oliver’s hips, the other’s body is nice and firm under Percy’s hands, he feels the thick muscles of the Quidditch Captain’s arms shift against his shoulders. It feels good.  
“Are you hurt?” Percy asks and Oliver pulls a face, suddenly remembering his injuries. Percy moves away from the other abruptly, as if burned, the moment they might have been having shattered. He’s blushing, the color obvious on his pale skin, making his freckles disappear.  
“Sorry,” he mumbles, “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”  
And there’s nothing Oliver can do, other than opening his mouth and closing it again because he’s doesn’t know what to say, so the Quidditch Captain only shrugs (because that seemed like a safer answer).

It gets rough when they leave Hogwarts, Percy starts working for the ministry and Oliver plays for Puddlemere United; they barely see each other. They never talked about it but they were each other's best friend during their time at Hogwarts.  
Sitting on a lumpy sofa in his tiny London flat, Percy is choking on tears when he confesses that he’s had a fall out with his family, that he was used as a spy by the ministry without knowing it. He feels stupid, so incredibly naive. Oliver is the only one the ginger trusts.  
And Oliver draws him close, keeps telling him that it is okay, that everything will be fine, that it wasn’t Percy’s fault—not really—Percy didn’t know. But also, that Percy needs to take responsibility, right his wrongs.  
Both former Gryffindors fight in the Battle of Hogwarts. Percy apologises and the Weasleys accept him as a part of their family again. But there’s a gaping hole in the Weasley family even a returning son can’t fill. They cry and grieve and bury Fred.  
The war is over.  
Then Percy starts working under Kingsley Shacklebolt, the new Minister of Magic. He realises that he will probably never be Minister of Magic and something inside him tells him that it is okay. He doesn't want to anymore. Goals change, he supposes.  
Oliver starts to play for Puddlemere United again. It’s hard to just start playing Quidditch again after the war, but every single game Percy is on the stands and cheering for Puddlemere. It helps that Percy keeps coming to watch even though he isn’t too fond of Quidditch. To him it doesn’t matter if Oliver loses or wins, how many Quaffles he’s able to stop: they will always go out for a drink and talk about their lives after.  
Their other friends start to get married, Oliver and Percy attend their weddings, they are each others plus one, it feels natural. They dance, too. At first it’s only the fast songs but after a while they stop caring about the pace of the music.  
One spring night, they stand on the softly illuminated patio at yet another wedding when Percy surprises himself as he leans in to kiss Oliver, his hands are cradling Oliver’s jaw tentatively and he feels Oliver’s hands settle on his waist. The kiss itself is short and sweet, but when they part Oliver is beaming at the ginger and he knows he did the right thing. Maybe, Percy realises, this is something he wanted for a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.  
> This was my first perciver fanfic. Big shoutout to my friends Ella and Vanessa who beta-ed the original.  
> New version is beta read by my dear friend Robin.  
> Send me a message on tumblr (itsallaboutflowermetaphors) or twitter (@RainySidewalk) if you want to read the old version again.  
> I hope you liked it.


End file.
